The military engineer who built the Soviet atomic project
He began the Chelyabinsk metallurgical plant in 1942 from a single stake in a field on the Pervo-Pershinskaya site, and drew its first heat of steel on 19 April 1943.
A Soviet military engineer and state administrator who built the Moscow Canal, Moscow State University, and the atomic project's key facilities including Chelyabinsk-40 (Mayak). From 1944 as chief of Glavpromstroy (the NKVD/MVD industrial-construction camp administration) he built special facilities with camp labour, and he led construction of Combine No. 817 and other nuclear-industry sites, laying the material basis for the 1949 atomic test. Later Deputy Minister of Medium Machine Building and, from 1963, Deputy Minister of Defense for Construction and Quartering; promoted to General of the Army in 1972. Hero of Socialist Labor (1949), Stalin Prize (1951), Lenin Prize (1968).
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1928–1931Engineer, Svir'stroy Design Bureau
- 1931–1937Moscow Canal: sector chief → chief of Central District
- 1937–1938Chief & chief engineer, Moscow Canal operations
- 1939–1940Deputy People's Commissar for Construction
- 1941–1942Commander, 5th Sapper Army
- 1942–1944Chief, Chelyabmetallurgstroy NKVD
- 1944–1951Chief, Glavpromstroy NKVD/MVD
- 1955–1963Deputy Minister of Medium Machine Building (construction)
- 1963–1973Deputy Minister of Defense for Construction & Quartering
Related historical events
- 1928–1937The Five-Year Plans and the Soviet TransformationMoscow Canal construction engineer
- 1941–1945The Great Patriotic Warcommander of the 5th Engineer Army
- 1943–1949The Soviet Atomic ProjectBuilding the sitesHe led the military construction organization that built the atomic sites and the closed cities.